Jim "Tiny" Pollard has been on the highway just a few minutes in the dawn light outside Charlotte when the voice of another trucker comes over the CB radio mounted in the cab of Pollard's 18-wheel tractor-trailer.

The 6-5 Pollard shuts off his mike and smiles. "We'll be asked that a hundred times today," he says, maneuvering a 3-foot-long chrome shifter. (Related photo gallery: Sights and sounds of life on the road)

Pollard is a NASCAR "hauler." On a Thursday, he's off to Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania pulling a transporter — a garage on wheels with an upper deck containing two No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolets. The backup car later comes in handy for points-leading driver Jimmie Johnson.

Pollard grabs attention cruising the interstates in an 80-foot-long rig with a spotless blue and silver paint job that glistens in the sun, chrome exhausts that rise up on either side of the cab like chimneys and a big 48 painted in yellow on each side.

On this 573-mile, 11-hour trip, no one asks other trucks carrying steel and lumber where they're bound. There is CB chatter the whole way directed at Pollard and the other Hendrick Motorsports truck he's always in tandem with, the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet rig driven by his pal and fellow hauler Jeff Craven (four-time NASCAR champ Jeff Gordon drives the race car Sunday).

Race drivers don't ride in the trucks. They fly, as do the pit crew and mechanics. Some truckers and fans don't realize that.

Some celebrity goes with the job. They drive about 70,000-75,000 miles a year, about half as much as some other long-haul truckers. They make about $65,000 to more than $100,000, depending on whether they do other jobs, such as work on the pit crew. Pollard is a gasman on race days.

But it's not an easy ride. Pollard notes the NASCAR season runs from early February to late November, that haulers must return to the home base in North Carolina after every race before heading for the next stop, that some cross-country trips take 40 or 50 hours. Mondays and Tuesdays are typical days off. And there's no pit crew around to change a flat tire in mere seconds.

"Sometimes, when people talk to you, they make you feel" like a celebrity, he says. "But I'm just a truck driver. All I do is haul a pretty trailer down the road."

Part of the job is to keep them pretty. The logo on the side of Pollard's tractor says, "Lowe's ... Improving Home Improvement." It is his job to make sure the rig represents the sponsors well.

When it rains on the way to Pocono after Pollard and Craven get their trucks washed in Virginia, they have them rewashed in Long Pond, Pa., before entering the track.

"Sponsors pay big money. They don't want to see a dirty truck and trailer in there," says Pollard, who uses cleaners and wipes to go over his rig like a teenager with his first car. "We've washed them as many as three times on one trip."

Fill 'er up is the routine

Pollard lives in High Point, N.C. Most NASCAR teams are based near Charlotte, and most haulers are North Carolinians. But as a teenager in Greensboro, N.C., Pollard had no NASCAR aspirations.

After high school, he was working in a grocery store chain warehouse. When he got a chance to enter a training program to become a grocery truck driver, he called to ask his mom's opinion.

He took the challenge anyway. While a grocery trucker, he began working part time as an assistant hauler with Petty Enterprises. In 2001 he became an assistant driver with Craven on the No. 24 truck at Hendrick. In 2002 he became full-time hauler for No. 48.

"Jimmie Johnson was a rookie. I was a rookie, too," Pollard says.

He has hundreds of thousands of miles behind him. It's two hours to the race in Martinsville, Va. It's 52 hours to run in Sonoma, Calif.

For Sonoma, Pollard travels with assistant Jason Gray. They leave at midnight Monday and take turns driving five hours on and five off.

"When I'm driving, he's sleeping. When he's driving, I'm sleeping," says Pollard, who "sleeps like a baby" in the bed in the cab.

Between each race, haulers return to their home shop to pick up new cars that are especially set up for each track and to reload the transporters to head out again.

The day before they leave for Pocono, Pollard and Craven visit a grocery store to stock up their trailers for the pit crew and mechanics.

The clerk asks Pollard that familiar question. "Pocono," he answers.

The trailer is 13 feet, 6 inches high. Inside mirrored glass doors on the rear, the aisle is lined with cabinets and bins. Inside those is everything from tools, parts and pit uniforms to a complete engine.

"We have everything you need to about build a car from the ground up," Pollard says.

Before the 6 a.m. departure, the aisle is filled with more gear rolled in on dollies that can be quickly removed at the track. Filled, the rig weighs near the allowed highway limit of 80,000 pounds.

Then the cars are loaded, using a mechanical lift platform, which doubles as the back door. When each car is ready to load, the shop affixes a big, yellow hammer made of foam atop the hood. Some superstition goes with that.

"When Lowe's came aboard, we decided to use a hammer," Pollard says. "We've been here an hour trying to find a hammer."

Personalities along the way

On the way to Pocono, Pollard and Craven make a stop for the wash, another for fuel and another to give a spare tire to a hauler with a flat. The CB is on the whole way and the NASCAR banter continues.

• "Forty-eight, get that car ready and blow that 20 car (Tony Stewart) off the track."

• "If you don't like NASCAR, you ain't American."

One trucker is miffed Pollard doesn't have any T-shirts or hats to offer. "And he's leading the points," the caller says of Pollard's race driver, Johnson.

As the driver of Gordon's truck, Craven is accustomed to a range of comments. Gordon is a love-him-or-hate-him NASCAR personality.

More to the job than driving

Behind every NASCAR driver is a NAS-truck driver, whose job it is to deliver all that is needed to race each weekend, from big stuff to tiny bolts.

Jim ''Tiny'' Pollard is such a trucker. He travels the interstates in an 18-wheel tractor-trailer. Make that 26 wheels if you count the tires on the two No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolets he carries in the upper compartment of his trailer for race use by Nextel Cup leader Jimmie Johnson.

Pollard's duties involve more than his hours at the wheel. Before every trip from the Hendrick Motorsports shop in Harrisburg, N.C., he makes sure his rolling garage is properly stocked with tools, spare parts, pit crew uniforms and much more.

He goes shopping the day before to stock the pantry in the trailer so busy mechanics and pit crew members can grab a bite on weekends. On race day, Pollard works on the pit crew himself as a gasman, pouring fuel into the race car in seconds from a long-necked can. Then after every race, he drives back to North Carolina so his rig can be prepared for the next race.

''A lot of truckers think our job would be neat to have. It's a very popular sport,'' Pollard says. ''But they don't know the whole gist of the deal. They think we get to sit back and watch the race and all.''

But there are perks. On Saturday evenings before races, he's been to NHL and NBA games and a World Series game in Arizona. He's met celebrities from sports and entertainment.

And when he's rolling down the highway in his shiny, blue and silver rig, NASCAR fans honk their car horns and wave.

''The kids are the best,'' Pollard says. ''They get all excited when you come by on the road. That's pretty cool. And they all want you to blow the horn.''

Gary Mihoces

"I've had people follow me for a hundred miles just to take a picture of the hauler" rig, Craven says.

He also hears a lot from fans of Dale Earnhardt Jr. "They'll tell you, 'I don't like Jeff. I'm a Dale Jr. fan,' " Craven says. "I tell them, 'Just as long as you are a fan.' "

This trip goes smoothly. Pollard says flat tires are the worst things that have happened to him. But a flat can cost hours. The truckers have to call a service to have a new tire put on.

"Some guys blow as many as three or four on one trip," Pollard says. "You might be down three or four hours before somebody can change a tire."

Trip is over, time for the next

Pollard arrives at Pocono about 5 p.m. Thursday. He has his second wash in a field near the track, where a power washer is set up.

He enters the raceway and drives around the track to line up for 6:45 the next morning. That's when haulers are allowed to move into the garage. Because Johnson leads in points, Pollard is second in line to go into the track behind 2004 champ Kurt Busch's truck.

Although he has a hotel room, Pollard sleeps in his truck Thursday night so he can be sure to get his spot the next morning. At 8 a.m. Friday, the crews with each team are allowed into the garage area to unload the cars.

In Friday practice, Johnson wrecks. He uses the backup to qualify Saturday and race Sunday.

After qualifying, Pollard plays golf and gets a good night's sleep. Sunday he has to work in the pit crew — and drive home.

He lifts an 11-gallon can of fuel, weighing about 80 pounds, during pit stops. "The more upright you get it, the more pressure you create and the faster the fuel will go in," says Pollard, who can empty a can in 6.2 or 6.3 seconds.

As driver of the 48 car, Johnson knows Pollard delivers the truck — and the fuel. "Every situation is different with the teams, what the transporter driver does," Johnson says. "Our transporter driver goes over the wall (with the pit crew). It's a crucial part of our race team."

After the last pit stop but before the race is over, Pollard is pushing a cooler cart to the truck.

Johnson finishes 12th but maintains his overall points lead.

The race lasts about four hours and is over about 5:45 p.m. The truck is reloaded. The car that raced is pushed in behind the wrecked car in the top compartment. By 6:58 p.m. Pollard is rolling onto the track to head home.

On the way back to Charlotte, he passes the Virginia resort where his wife and two children have begun a vacation. He and Craven drive to the resort Tuesday evening to join their families. This weekend is an off weekend for NASCAR.